Animal Mummies in the Collections of the National Museum in Krakow and the Princes Czartoryski Museum
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/SAAC.27.2023.27.06Keywords:
animal mummies, ancient Egypt, Princes Czartoryski Museum, radiological examinations, tomographic examinations, fake mummyAbstract
The collections of the National Museum in Krakow and the Princes Czartoryski Museum include four Egyptian animal mummies, whose radiological and tomographic examinations were carried out twice, in 1999 and 2021, in the Department of Radiology of the Jagiellonian University Medical College. The paper will present two aspects of the examinations, crucial for the knowledge of the artifacts. On the one hand, these are provenience research that allow to determine the history of the acquisition for the collection of both museums. On the other hand, medical examinations provided the answer to the question about the authenticity and value of the objects. Images of the inside of the mummies allowed to correlate the shape of the mummies with the animal species – in our case, a cat, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel – and to clarify the biological data on birds. X-rays also revealed the imitation of the ichneumon mummy, which, considering the species of the animal and the history of its acquisition for the Princes Czartoryski Museum, had always been a unique specimen among Egyptian artifacts.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Armitage P. and Clutton-Brock J. 1981. A Radiological and Histological Investigation into the Mummification of Cats from Ancient Egypt. Journal of Archaeological Science 8/2, 185-196. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(81)90023-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(81)90023-6
Atherton S. D. and McKnight L. M. 2014. The Mummification of Votive Birds: Past and Present. Experimental Archaeology 1, 1-7.
Baber T. T. 2019. Early Travellers and the Animal ‘Mummy Pits’ of Egypt: Exploration and Exploitation of the Animal Catacombs in the Age of Early Travel. In S. Porcier, S. Ikram and S. Pasquali (eds), Creatures of Earth, Water and Sky: Essays on Animals in Ancient Egypt and Nubia, 67-86. Leiden.
Bailleul-LeSuer R. 2019. From Egyptology to Ornithology: The Cults of Sacred Falcons and the Musée des Confluences’ Raptor Mummies. In S. Porcier, S. Ikram and S. Pasquali (eds), Creatures of Earth, Water and Sky: Essays on Animals in Ancient Egypt and Nubia, 87-97. Leiden.
Buckley S. A., Clark K. A. and Evershed R. P. 2004. Complex Organic Chemical Balms of Pharaonic Animal Mummies. Nature 431, 294-299. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02849. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02849
Brunner-Traut E. 1965. Spitzmaus und Ichneumon als Tiere des Sonnengottes. Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 7, 123-163.
Cooney J. D. 1965. Pharaoh’s Rat. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 52/8, 101-105.
Cornelius I., Swanepoel L. C., Du Plessis A. and Slabbert R. 2012. Looking Inside Votive Creatures: Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning of Ancient Egyptian Mummified Animals in Iziko Museums of South Africa: A Preliminary Report. Akroterion 57, 129-148. https://doi.org/10.7445/57-0-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7445/57-0-135
Diab A. M. 2020. Scenes of Mongoose as a Predator in the Papyrus Thicket During the Old Kingdom. International Journal of Heritage, Tourism and Hospitality 14/2, 28-41. https://doi.org/10.21608/ijhth.2020.154141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21608/ijhth.2020.154141
Driesch von den A., Kessler D., Steinmann F., Berteaux V. and Peters J. 2005. Mummified, Deified and Buried at Hermopolis Magna — The Sacred Birds from Tuna el-Gebel,
Middle Egypt. Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant 15, 203-244. https://doi.org/10.1553/aeundl15s203. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1553/AEundL15s203
Ejsmond W. and Przewłocki Ł. 2014. Some Remarks on Cat Mummies in Light of the Examination of Artefacts from the National Museum in Warsaw Collection. SAAC 18, 239-258. https://doi.org/10.12797/saac.18.2014.18.15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12797/SAAC.18.2014.18.15
Evans L. 2016. Beasts and Beliefs at Beni Hassan: A Preliminary Report. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 52, 219-229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5913/jarce.52.2016.a013
Goodman S. M. and Meininger P. L. 1989. The Birds of Egypt. Oxford.
Gorzelany-Nowak D. 2022. Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich. Źródła. Galeria sztuki starożytnej. Przewodnik. / The Princes Czartoryski Museum. The Origins. Ancient Art Gallery. Guide. Krakow.
Ikram S. and Iskander N. 2002. Catalogue Général of the Egyptian Museum: Non-Human Mummies. Cairo.
Ikram S. 2005a. Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies. In S. Ikram (ed.), Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, 1-15. Cairo. https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0001
Ikram S. 2005b. Manufacturing Divinity: The Technology of Mummification. In S. Ikram (ed.), Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, 16-43. Cairo. https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0002
Ikram S. 2005c. The Loved Ones: Egyptian Animal Mummies as Cultural and Environmental Indicators. In H. Buitenhuis, A. M. Choyke, L. Martin, L. Bartosiewicz and M. Mashkour (eds) Archaeozoology of the Near East 6, 240-248. Groningen.
Ikram S. 2013. An Eternal Aviary: Bird Mummies from Ancient Egypt. In R. Bailleul-LeSuer (ed.), Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, 41-48. Chicago.
Ikram S. 2015. Speculations on the Role of Animal Cults in the Economy of Ancient Egypt.
In M. Massiera, B. Mathieu and Fr. Rouffet (eds), Apprivoiser le Sauvage/Taming the Wild, 211-228. Montpellier.
Jiang B. and Vannier M. 2013. Medical CT Scanning of Ancient Bird Mummies. In R. Bailleul-LeSuer (ed.), Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, 107-108. Chicago.
Johansson C., Metz G. and Uhlhorn M. 2015. Feline Descendant of the Red or the Black Land: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of an Unusually Large Ancient Egyptian Cat Mummy. In S. Ikram, J. Kaiser and R. Walker (eds), Egyptian Bioarchaeology Humans, Animals, and the Environment, 177-200. Leiden.
Kessler D. 2003. Tierische Missverstädnisse: Grundsätzliches zu Fragen des Tierkultes. In M. Fitzenreiter (ed.), Tierkulte im pharaonischen Ägypten und im Kulturvergleich, 33-67. Berlin.
Kessler D. 2007. Spitzmaus, Ichneumon und Ratte im Tierfriedhof. Bulletin of the Egyptian Museum Cairo 4, 71-82.
Kessler D. and Nur el-Din M. A. 2005. Tuna al-Gebel: Millions of Ibises and Other Animals.
In S. Ikram (ed.), Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, 120-163. Cairo. https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0006
Liptay É. 1993. The Cartonnage and Coffin of Js.t-m-3hbj.t in the Czartoryski Museum, Cracow. SAAC 6, 7-26.
Liptay É. 2009. The Wooden Inner Coffin of Takhenemet in the Czartoryski Museum, Cracow. SAAC 13, 83-117.
Lurker M. 1995. Bogowie i symbole starożytnych Egipcjan. Warszawa.
Málek J. 1993. The Cat in Ancient Egypt. London. McKnight L. 2010. Imaging Applied to Animal Mummification in Ancient Egypt. Oxford.
https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407307190. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407307190
McKnight L. 2013. Studying Avian Mummies at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology: Past, Present, and Future. In R. BailleulLeSuer (ed.), Between Heaven and Earth. Birds in Ancient Egypt, 99-106. Chicago.
McKnight L., Adams J. E., Chamberlain A., Atherton-Woolham S. D. and Bibb R. 2015.
Application of Clinical Imaging and 3D Printing to the Identification of Anomalies in an Ancient Egyptian Animal Mummy. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 3, 328-332.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.06.028. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.06.028
Moczulska K. 2000. Prince August Czartoryski in Egypt, 1882: A Contribution to the History of the Czartoryski Collections. In K. M. Ciałowicz and J. A. Ostrowski (eds), Les civilizations du Bassin méditerranéen : hommages à Joachim Śliwa, 425-435. Cracow.
Moczulska K. and Śliwa J. 1972. Identyfikacja zabytków egipskich ze Zbiorów Czartoryskich z wykazami zakupów z lat 1884 i 1885. Prace Archeologiczne 14, 85-104.
Morgan L. W. and McGovern-Huffman S. 2008. Noninvasive Radiographic Analysis of an Egyptian Falcon Mummy from the Late Period 664-332 BC. Journal of Avian Biology 39/5, 584-587. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04269.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04269.x
Morrison-Scott T. C. S. 1952. The Mummified Cats of Ancient Egypt. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 121/4, 861-867. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1952.tb00788.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1952.tb00788.x
Pelizzari Ch. A., Haney Ch. R., Bailleul-LeSuer R., Brown J. P. and Wietholt Ch. 2013.
Challenges in CT Scanning of Avian Mummies. In R. Bailleul-LeSuer (ed.), Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, 109-118. Chicago.
Porter R. 2011. Insights into Egyptian Horus Falcon Imagery by Way of Real Falcons and Horus Falcon Influence in the Aegean in the Middle Bronze Age: Part I. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 3/3, 27-38. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_jaei_v03i3_porter. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_jaei_v03i3_porter2
Pubblico M. D. 2017. The Cat Mummies of the Società Africana d’Italia: An Archaeological, Cultural and Religious Perspective. In G. Rosati and M. C. Guidotti (eds), Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Egyptologists, Florence, Italy 23-30 August 2015, 532-537. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv177tjnf.99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv177tjnf.99
Pubblico M. D. and Oliva C. 2019. Les cinq momies de chat de la Società africana d’Italia (SAI): nouvelles recherche, nouvelles découvertes. In S. Porcier, S. Ikram, S. Pasquali (eds), Creatures of Earth, Water, and Sky: Essays on Animals in Ancient Egypt and Nubia, 293-304. Leiden.
Simpson W. K. 1957. A Running of the Apis in the Reign of ‘Aḥa and Passages in Manetho and Aelian’, Orientalia 26, 139-142.
Wilfong T. G. 2015. Death Dogs: The Jackal Gods of Ancient Egypt. Michigan.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
